Ring Tailed Lemur Lemur catta
By Noan Fesnoux
Greetings, I am a ring-tailed lemur, known to scientists as Lemur catta. Although I look very different from other monkeys, I am in fact a near relative to some of them. All lemurs are primates, and interestingly all lemurs also live on Madagascar! You may be wondering, “Where did you get such a strange name?�. The answer is easy... just look at my tail! It looks like it came off a zebra! So read on if you want to find out more about me and my family. We are really quite interesting... and pretty darn cute as well!
About Madagascar Madagascar is an island off the continent of Africa. It is the 4th largest island in the world. Many of the animals that live on Madagascar are endemic (meaning they are only found there). The island also has a wide range of different habitats, and some really weird animals and plants. Madagascar used to be mostly forest, but over time it has become more and more covered in human development. Many of the animals on this island are threatened.
Ring-Tailed Lemur Habitat The ring-tailed lemur lives in forests called “gallery forests�. They exist next to rivers, but not far from it. This type of area is usually dry most of the year, so the forest does not grow far from the river. Ring-tailed lemurs also live in the spiny scrublands of the south of Madagascar. It is almost like a desert in some areas, so the lemurs have to be pretty tough!
Anatomy of a Lemur
Antebrachial gland
spur
toothcomb
Adult Ringtails are about 40cm long, with a 60cm long tail! They have black skin, which is only visible around their eyes and their pads. They excrete scent in special glands, called antebrachial glands. It is used to attract mates. They also have many neat features for grooming, such as the toothcomb found on their lower jaw.
Diet Nothing pleases a ring-tailed lemur more than a Tamarind tree (seen in the picture). When these fruits are available, they make up as much as 50% of the ring-tailed lemur’s diet! It is especially great to feast on in the dry season, as the other plants aren’t as productive. Ring-tailed lemurs are classified as omnivores, and grow increasingly opportunistic in the dry season. They eat over 40 types of plants, and will eat spiders, bugs, worms, and some lizards.
Social Behaviour
The ring-tailed lemur leads a very social life. Their troops are multi-male troops with a female as the leader of the group. The females eat first and pretty much are the bosses. The males have a dominance hierarchy based on age. One neat behaviour these lemurs have is called “sun worshipping”. This is where they sit facing the sun in the early morning to warm up. Another is “stink fighting”. In this, the males rub their smell all over their tails and wave them around to be smelly.
Communication The ring-tailed lemur has a few ways of communicating. Most commonly, they use sounds to communicate. These primates have one of the most diverse “languages” among animals. To show they are happy, they purr. When they are mobbing a predator, they use clicks and yaps to scare the enemy away. The babies give a little “whit” when they are in trouble. Lemurs also use scent to communicate. They use smells to show their territory, as a way to attract a mate, and as a display of social dominance. They also use urine as a scent marker, spraying areas just like cats are known to do.
Intelligence And Tool Making
Lemurs are not the smartest of the primate family, but they do show obvious signs of intelligence. They can be trained to tell differences between objects, and can learn tool making and using. Originally people thought that lemurs could not use tools, because they did not display any ability in the wild. However, they found that in captivity lemurs can in fact use tools, and select tools based on their functionality rather than their color or size.
Ring-tailed lemurs are quirky, exciting animals to see. However, they are endangered due to habitat loss. Their environment is incredibly unique, and nowhere else on that planet can amazing animals like lemurs be seen. A distant relative to the great apes, lemurs are very valuable in understanding all primate’s common ancestor. They are a treasure of our world we can not give up!
Credits: Thanks to Wikipedia as a primary source. National Geographic big book of mammals also provided great details. Photos:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ring_tailed_lemur_and_twins.jpg http://oswinb92.typepad.com/.a/6a012876eed1e8970c0120a8bf9557970b-pi http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Ringtailed_Lemur_057.jpg/170px-R http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/Lemur_catta_1.jpg/220px-Lemur_ca http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ring_tail_lemur_leaping.JPG http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lemur_catta_brachial_glands.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lemur_catta_spur_and_antebrachial_gland.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lemur_catta_toilet_claw.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lemur_catta_toothcomb.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ringtailed_lemur_tail.jpg